Editor’s Note: On November 30, 2018, Saturday Night Live writer Nimesh Patel was performing at Columbia University Asian American Alliance’s cultureSHOCK event. Part-way into a set that contained offensive and harassing material, Patel was asked to leave the stage by event organizers. Patel published his version of events in The New York Times. This is what really happened, according to the former president of Columbia University’s Asian American Alliance.

By now, you may have heard that Saturday Night Live writer Nimesh Patel was asked to leave the stage at cultureSHOCK, an annual charity showcase organized by Columbia University’s Asian American Alliance. By now, you’ve read the public coverage of the story which invoked right-wing outcries over PC culture to blame students for being over-sensitive.

Most likely, what you’ve read thus far about Patel’s performance at cultureSHOCK has been wrong; or, at least, it paints a totally incomplete picture. Here’s what really happened.